


Walking after midnight

by Ischa



Series: Bogeyways [4]
Category: My Chemical Romance, Original Work, Panic! at the Disco
Genre: Bogeyman, Creepy, Gen, Halloween 2012
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-05
Updated: 2012-11-05
Packaged: 2017-11-18 01:54:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/555583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ischa/pseuds/Ischa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Brendon has an encounter on his way home. </p><p> <i>“Picking up strays, Clarence?” the second shadow asked.</i><br/><i>There was a dark laugh. It was a sound like fingernails on chalkboard. “Look at him, he is shivering...shivering,” and a pale, pale, pale very young looking face emerged from the shadow. So beautiful it was terrible.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Walking after midnight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [doctor_jasley](https://archiveofourown.org/users/doctor_jasley/gifts).



> Nameless and Clarence are from ['Childhood monsters'](http://archiveofourown.org/works/449687). Bogeways verse.  
> Beta: omletlove

**~One~**  
The shadows always looked darker and a bit more alive now, Brendon thought, as he walked home from the store. It was hard to imagine anything else. Shadows were in every corner, deep and dark.  
Brendon had been afraid of the dark as a child, terrified even, but since Gerard and Mikey came to live with him, he wasn't afraid of it anymore. Not much. Sometimes the shadows around Mikey managed to freak him out when Mikey was angry. When he felt vengeful. When he was really pissed off.  
It was a small price to pay for living with supernatural creatures, he thought. At least his bogeymen didn't scare any children anymore and didn't kill people. Brendon wasn't sure if that was a rule, or normal behaviour - quitting being a bogeyman certainly wasn’t. That much was clear. The other thing, not so sure: movies painted a pretty gruesome picture, but Brendon didn't trust Hollywood when it came to portraying monsters correctly. 

 

 **~Two~**  
“Look,” Brendon said to the shadow on the wall that was following him for three blocks now. Creeping closer and closer. “You can't frighten me.” 

“Really?” a silky voice asked and Brendon stopped walking and looked at the shadow on the wall: Mean looking and big. It wasn't Gerard's playful shadow so he had assumed it must have been Mikey, but the voice didn't belong to either of his bogeymen. “You look afraid right now,” the voice went on it was amused. Brendon suppressed a shiver. The voice was inhuman.  
As Brendon watched in silence a second shadow appeared at his feet. Black as tar and oozing – up, like it wanted to melt with the first black shape on the wall. The first shape curled like a big cat being caressed. It was erotic and Brendon wanted to look away, because it was a bit like porn, but he didn't. 

“Picking up strays, Clarence?” the second shadow asked.  
There was a dark laugh. It was a sound like fingernails on chalkboard. “Look at him, he is shivering...shivering,” and a pale, pale, pale very young looking face emerged from the shadow. So beautiful it was terrible. It nearly hurt to look at Clarence. “I love to see them shiver in fear and awe,” Clarence whispered.  
Brendon took a sharp breath. This, he thought, this is what other kids had to deal with. He was suddenly fiercely glad he had had Mikey and Gerard. Bogeymen. Like his own, but so much more. Meaner, darker, crueller.  
Brendon reached out, because he never could help himself; the second bogeyman, the nameless one, hissed and Brendon snatched his hand back. Breathing fast. He should run or call for Mikey or Gerard or both. He shouldn't be here with them, because they were different. They were monsters. Beasts that knew they were beasts and liked it.  
The nameless shadow looked at him without eyes. Brendon could still feel his gaze on his body. He crossed his arms over his chest as if that could protect him. He knew that they only frightened children, but he had no idea what bogeymen did to adults who could see them. He didn't think he wanted to find out. 

“He knows,” the nameless one said.  
Brendon took a step back. 

“Oh,” Clarence said, he smiled: all sharp small viscous looking teeth. He leaned forward really fast and kissed Brendon, his teeth biting into Brendon's lip and then he merged with the shadows before the blood could even well up. Brendon hissed. “You taste delicious,” Clarence whispered and Brendon was sure he would eat him.  
He ran. The laugher like nails on chalkboard following him all the way home. 

 

 **~Three~**  
It was dark inside and he couldn't stand it. For the first time in years he couldn't stand the dark. He was afraid, he was panicking.  
Brendon lit all the lamps on his way to the kitchen. Adam was probably still crashing because he just came back from a tour and Brendon, Brendon was hyperventilating. 

“Are you alright? What happened to your lip?” Mikey asked, squinting. The light hurt his eyes, but he didn't tell Brendon to switch it off. 

Brendon jumped. With that much light around his bogeymen always looked pale and washed out and somehow unreal. Like ghosts. Like projections.  
Brendon wanted desperately to say yes. “No.” 

Mikey took a step closer and Brendon flinched. “Brendon?” 

“I can't. I can't.” 

“Okay...I’ll just go over there where there isn't so much light, alright?”  
Brendon nodded. Even if he hated the idea of Mikey lurking in the dark, in the shadows. “You look freaked out.” Mikey stated, the shadows at his feet were small. A tiny puddle of darkness. 

Brendon took a deep breath. “What are bogeyman doing with adults that can see them?” 

Mikey looked at him sharply. “Why-” 

“Just TELL ME!” He clasped his hands over his mouth and took another breath. He didn't want to scream the house down. Adam was sleeping, Gerard was painting or whatever, Brendon didn't know. Mikey was here, because Mikey cared, but Brendon could still feel sharp teeth against his skin. He was losing it a bit here. And who could blame him. 

“Nothing...”

“Bullshit.” 

“Some like to scare them, some like to play with them.”

“Play?” 

Mikey looked away and to the window, to the darkness there, a darkness Brendon couldn't really see: with all the lights on he could only see the mirror image of the kitchen. He was glad for small mercies.  
“Play,” Mikey stated. 

“How? I guess they don't sit down with a die and D&D.” 

Mikey smiled at that. “No.”

“Mikey I need to know.” 

“What happened to your lip?” Mikey asked again. 

“Something bit me.” Something, something dark, something inhuman, something scary as fuck. Something like you, he thought. 

Mikey looked him then. Hard. “We like to scare people. We like to make them feel uncomfortable, like to listen to the too fast irregular heartbeat hammering in their chests. Like the taste of their fear,” he looked at Brendon's lip, “and their blood.” 

Brendon closed his eyes. We, he thought. He knew that some part of Mikey relished in the fear of humans. He has seen it.  
“There aren't any good monsters,” Brendon whispered and he knew of course, of course he knew, like there aren't any good people. Every thinking being was always both, had the potential for both, sometimes the scale tipped in one direction, that was all. 

“There is Gerard,” Mikey said with utter conviction.  
Brendon smiled.  
But even Gerard freaked Adam out. He hadn't meant to at the time, but it had happened. 

“I'm going to sleep with the lights on,” Brendon said. 

“Come here?” Mikey asked.

Brendon hesitated, but only for a moment. This was Mikey. Mikey wouldn't hurt him. Mikey reached out and Brendon let him wrap a slender cool hand around his neck. He was shivering a bit, not sure why. And then Mikey dragged him down and licked the caked blood from his lip. Brendon inhaled sharply. Mikey's hand tightened around his neck and he bit down. Brendon moaned. It was half pain, half something else. Mikey kissed the corner of his mouth and let go.  
Brendon stared at him. “What the fuck?”

“He marked you,” Mikey said. 

“I repeat: What the fuck?” 

“You need to let Gerard do it too. So they know you are ours and not to be fucked with,” Mikey said matter of fact. 

Brendon took a deep breath. Great, just fucking great. “I-”

“I'll talk to him. He'll make it quick.” 

“Did they,” he stopped and rephrased, “do they kill?” 

“Sometimes,” Mikey answered. 

Brendon leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. He was so fucked. Mikey grabbed his wrist and Brendon let him, let him intertwine their fingers and just breathed.


End file.
